SF Housing Authority: A brief, albeit familiar history

Mayor Ed Lee just did it. Mayor Gavin Newsom did it. And we told you last week that Mayor Willie Brown reminded us that he did it too.

Yes, they all tried to make sweeping changes to the perennially beleaguered Housing Authority including making new appointments to the agency’s commission. Last week, we told you it was like de ja vu all over again – again.

Time to add yet another again.

Former Supervisor Michael Yaki wrote to say that Mayor Frank Jordan should be on the list, too. Yaki recalled that in the early 1990’s, President Clinton had initiated the Hope VI program to give federal grants to local housing authorities to rebuild the most distressed public housing projects.

The city had won a grant to remake Hayes Valley and Bernal Dwellings in Bernal Heights and Plaza East in the Western Addition were next in line. Yaki, who at the time was district director for Rep. Nancy Pelosi, recalled that concerns over permanently displacing residents led the Housing Authority Commission to refuse to apply for more Hope VI money.

“When we heard that, we were a little distressed,” Yaki said, noting Pelosi immediately got on the phone to Jordan. “She called the mayor up and had a frank chat with him. The next day, he fired the commission.”

He immediately appointed a new commission which applied for the grants just under the wire, got the money and rebuilt the projects.

So why if so many previous mayors have taken such dramatic steps has nothing worked to revamp the agency?

“That’s a mystery to me,” Yaki said.

P.S. In what could be a sign that things will really change this time around, there’s no national search for a permanent replacement for Housing Authority chief, Henry Alvarez, who is on medical leave and not seeking to renew his contract which expires in June.

Barbara Smith, a longtime agency manager, is interim director.

Usually, the city makes a big deal of hiring a consulting firm to conduct a national search for a hot-shot leader from some other major city. (That’s the exact process that led to Alvarez being hired from San Antonio.)

But City Administrator Naomi Kelly said not this time. After all, the mayor is considering absorbing the Housing Authority into the Mayor’s Office of Housing or contracting out nonprofits to run it in which case its leadership structure won’t remain the same.

“We want to figure out the future of the agency before we look for a permanent replacement for Henry,” Kelly said. “We might not need a replacement.”